Birds. ag 



St. Lawrence to the Atlantic; the Mohawk to the east and 

 the Chenango and Unadilla to the south, the former, through 

 the Hudson, and the latter, through the Susquehanna, reaching 

 the same destination. 



The rainfall is large, and the tenjperature is not only low on 

 the average, but exceedingly variable, especially in winter. 

 Changes of fifty or sixty degrees Fahrenheit within twenty- 

 four hours occur in almost every winter, and I have one record 

 of a fall of seventy-two degrees in thirty hours. Such changes 

 destroy many birds if they are present, and make it almost 

 impossible for such birds as the Bob-white, which are snowed 

 under and frozen in, to maintain themselves as residents. A 

 few winters ago the crust on the snow throughout this part of 

 the county was strong enough so that for at least a week one 

 could skate in any direction over the fields. Such a crust must, 

 without doubt, destroy all but the most powerful birds which 

 are caught under it. 



This is the climate of the center of the county, of the 

 Mohawk Valley. In the extreme north it is much more 

 steadily cold in winter, and in the south and west (where it 

 is affected by large bodies of water) it is somewhat milder; 

 but taken as a whole it must be considered a severe and trying 

 climate. 



The most of the county is in the Transition Life Zone of 

 Dr. Merriam. The northern part and the West Canada Creek 

 Valley are in the Canadian, and there is a very small and very 

 interesting area at the eastern end of Oneida Lake, where the 

 Adirondack Valley of Fish Creek, coming down from the 

 north, meets the valley of the Oneida, which connects directly 

 on ths west with a Carolinian area which comes east along the 

 Great Lakes. 



Here we find such Canadian species as the White-throated 

 Sparrow, the New York Water Thrush, and the Canada 

 Warbler, breeding side by side with the Mourning Dove, the 

 Whip-poor-will and the Towhee; while the forest is partly 

 composed of tulip and gum trees, with quite a number of small 

 sassafras, almost unknown among our beech, birch and maple 

 at Utica, and entirely so in the spruce and fir forests in our 

 northeastern section. 



